During the reigns of George IV. and William IV., James Wyatt's brother,
Jeffry Wyatt, whom George IV. knighted and called Wyatville, continued
the work of restoration, and gradually nearly all traces of the Castle
as it was during the latter part of the eighteenth century disappeared.
He raised the Round Tower to its present height, designed the plan for
the east and west sides of the Upper Ward, raised the level of all the
roofs, filled up the Brick Court with a grand staircase, and the Horn
Court with the Waterloo Gallery, united the stables, which were dotted
throughout the Town, on Castle Hill, and built the Brunswick Tower,
and the York and Lancaster Tower. It is to Wyatville's good taste and
fine artistic perceptions that we owe the fact that Windsor retains its
characteristics of a mediæval fortress, and has not been converted into
a stiffly symmetrical building, then so much affected.
George IV.'s favourite residence was a lodge near the Long Walk, but
two years before his death he removed to the Castle, and his long
illness kept him prisoner here till his death. In the same room, later
on called the Queen's Drawing-room, exactly seven years later, King
William also died.
The chapel of St. George was made a Chapel Royal by Edward III. in
1348. The office of dean was, till the reign of Henry IV., held by a
dignitary designated by the name of "custos." John Arundel, in Henry
IV.'s reign, being the first to bear the title of "dean." At first
the chapel was dedicated to St. Edward, but gradually, owing to its
connection with the Order of the Garter, St. George superseded the
former patron saint. Later on, Henry VII. had intended to make this
chapel the tomb of his race, and the work was actually commenced when
the king turned his attention to Westminster. Henry VIII. presented the
chapel to Wolsey, and, about 1524, the Cardinal employed Benedetto of
Florence to build a sumptuous sarcophagus of black marble, decorated
with figures of copper gilt. After his disgrace, the magnificent
metalwork lay neglected till the governorships of Colonel Venn and
Colonel Whichcott, when these functionaries sold various figures
and images as old brass, and realised a very handsome sum by the
transaction. In 1805, the marble sarcophagus was removed to St. Paul's,
to mark the grave of Lord Nelson.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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